Ireland's Unfinished Revolution 

PATREON: www.patreon.com/HorsesPT SHOP: horses.land/ To clarify: Patrons will now get early access to my videos, in addition to their other benefits. This will not affect the RU-vid channel. Everything will continue as usual over here. Whether you sign up for Horses Patreon or not, it makes me so unbelievably happy that people even watch these videos. I sincerely cannot thank you enough. I make videos that often get me into RU-vid trouble, and I will continue to do so. The Patreon page allows me to create without caring too much about this trouble, or the needs of advertisers/algorithms/etc. I just want to make the stuff I want to make. THANK YOU everyone for your ongoing support. -Michael

"The *British* Broadcasting Corporation owns all footage of the IRA." Irony at its finest.

There’s a deep irony in the BBC owning the footage of the IRA

I don't know if I've said it before, but your font game is second to none.

From Ireland, it’s always strange to see long form documentaries on RU-vid from, don’t take this the wrong way, foreigners. Thank you for this and thank you for your work. For those interested my great great grandfather was Thomas Ashe, one of the first hunger strikers. Thanks again

I feel like people from non-colonized nations will never understand the pain and suffering that comes from colonisation. My parents' country and its people still face the repercussions of almost a century and a half of colonisation. I say this as an Algerian, not an Irishwoman. In France, we barely touched upon the subject in school. But I think that's why one of the only (or the only?) vehemently pro-Palestinian European nations is Ireland.

As an Irishman I really don't like how people interchange the words "British" and "English". King James I was Scottish, most of the colonizers especially in Northern Ireland were Scots. The British as a whole colonized us, not just the English.

11:28 That man was James Connolly and he was not strapped to the chair because he was disabled. He was strapped to the chair because he was so badly injured from the fighting that he couldn’t stand. Doctors estimated he had about 1-2 more days to live.

I have very strong feelings about this, and was hesitant to watch: but you did a beautiful job. The last line is perfection.

You have the fastest most deserved growth in RU-vid I’ve ever seen. Quality content and to see you go from 100k and eventually 1M is nothing but amazing. Standing ovation

Being Irish there are some serious problems with this video. The SDLP and John Humme has been completely written out of the story of the civil rights movement and been replaced with the original IRA which was practically defunct by the 60s. Also the insinuation that the Irish Defence Forces were commanded by British forces at 41:45 is completely unfounded which coincides with a broader problem of completely ignoring the Republic of Ireland as if the IRA was the only Irish involved in the whole island.

(Irish postgraduate student in history here) I Noticed you cite Tim Pat Coogan in the description and need to point out that he is not a historian and is viewed very poorly by all Irish historians academics worth their salt. His books are polemics with little to no references to actual academic works. For general accounts of Irish history I would instead recommend tye Cambridge History of Ireland (4 volumes), Ireland, a history by Bartlett, Modern Ireland by Foster, or the Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish history. If you specifically want to look at the Troubles and the IRA that existed at this time then look at A Broad Church (2 volumes), Northern Ireland 1921-2001: Political Forces and Social Classes by Paul Bew, Armed Struggle by Richard English, and The Secret Army by Bower Bell.

Ok a few major and minor mistakes in here. Overall I get the vibe that this documentary was a rushed passion project as there are some massive oversights and inaccuracies throughout. I understand you're not Irish, but at the same time if you make a documentary you need be a lot more ontop of the history and events. I will say your editing is brilliant and with greater attention to the literature out there this could have been a very solid overview of the IRAs history. When speaking of Irish attempts to achieve self-government you seem to be confusing Sinn Féin with the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP). The former never took seats in Westminster and was only a major political force after the 1916 Rising. The IPP stood in Westminster and sought home rule (devolved government) and actually were successful in achieving it....but WW1 broke out ans it never came to be. The Irish Volunteers did not declare ireland an independent state. The Irish Volunteers had a major split over the question of participation in WW1. The vast majority of the force followed the lead of John Redmond (IPP leader) and joined the British Army, believing it would assist with the home rule movement. They were never forced by the British government to do so as you incorrectly state. A small fraction of the Volunteers remained in Ireland and were under the leadership of Eoin MacNeill. An even smaller fraction of this group that remained in ireland participanted in the 1916 Rising after a false document stated MacNeill ordered it. MacNeill found out about this document and succeeded in stopping all but 1,000 Volunteers from participating in the rising. There was no such thing as the "Irish Volunteer Force Declaration of Independence", it was simply the Proclamation of the Republic, which was written and signed by the military council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). To be honest its a massive oversight that you never mentioned the IRB when in reality they were the organisation that instigated the rising and brought together members of the various armed groups (Volunteers, Irish Citizen Army, etc) that took part in the fighting. You overstate the power and role of the Volunteers throughout the video when in reality they were pretty much just manpower to be used by the brains of the operation in the IRB. The Easter Rising in itself didnt galvanise a movement for independence amongst the Irish population. The rising was initially received by the citizens extremely poorly, with them being extremely angered by the destruction of the city and the deaths of civilians (mire civilians died that British army or irish rebel forces). It was only with the execution of the leaders that popular support for independence was sparked. Again on Sinn Féin and there role in republicanism. The 1916 Rising was mistakenly referred to as the "Sinn Féin Rising" by the papers, with members and their leader, Arthur Griffith, being imprisoned even though they had no role in the rising. The Dáil of 1919 (the breakaway Irish parliament) was actually highly functional and not just a symbolic act. A large aspect of the success during the war of independence was the act of ignoring British civil and political systems, with the Dáil courts being adopted by many citizens to settle legal problems. Small point so not a biggie, the volunteers were not initially the armed wing of sinn féin, rather, they had the same priorities and objectives. The actual outbreak of the war of independence was due to a number of volunteers acting against the ruilings of the Dáil to operate on a non violent basis, with them carrying out an ambush on Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) police officers and killing them at Soloheadbeg. Only during the war did the Volunteers/IRA fall under closer control of the parliament. A bit strong saying the Dáil was destroyed after the treaty. The Dáil remained but a Governor General representing the King replaced the president role that was used during the War of independence. It is so so very wrong to insinuate that the wolfe tone societies and IRA started the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement operated as an umbrella with all kinds of nationalists, republicans, militants, pacifists, and Protestants seeking to end discrimination against Catholics. John Hume and Bernadette Devlin were key figures in this movement, much much more so than Gouldling and the IRA, and should be mentioned. As an Irish person I have to say that it is deeply wrong and offensive to claim the civil rights movement was in any way at fault for the Troubles. The civil rights movement did not "spin out of control", it was wholly peaceful and campaigned for equal rights. The sectarian Northern Ireland state and it's apparatus cracked down with violence upon protestors. You say "Royal Forces" and "Royal Police". This is a bit confusing considering the British monarchy and all that. The Royal Ulster Constabulary or RUC should be used instead. The IRA split of 1969 was not really a political vs militant strategy dispute, it was a split over in the influence of marxist leninist ideology and its connections to other socialist/communist insurgencies, as well as the policy of abstentionism from the Irish Dáil. The Provisional IRA were more broad church/conservative and wanted to continue to abstain, whilst the Official IRA wanted to partake in politics and put forward a socialist front. Whilst the Officials were more open to peaceful routes, both organisations were violent. The Provisional IRA were not hard leftists, they were loosely ideologically socialist. The Official IRA were hardleftists. You use the term Loyalist very loosely. Refering to the British Army and the RUC as loyalist is correct in the sense that they were pro Uk and pro Northern Ireland, but not in the true sense of the term. Loyalist is used to refer to more militant forms of unionist expression by civilians and paramilitary groups. The Provisional IRA didnt abandon political means after Bloody Sunday as they had been solely commited to violent means so there were no peaceful means to abandon!!!! They split with the Officials due to their overly political outlook that the Provisionals thought detracted from the armed struggle. Only in '81 did the "armalite and ballet box" policy of militant and political policy come to the forefront of Provisional strategy. Airey Neave was not the leader of the Conservative Party, he was shadow secretary of state for Northern Ireland. Margaret Thatcher, one of the most famous British Prime ministers of all time was the conservative leader at the time. I'm sorry but how can you not know this and try to make a comprehensive video about the IRA? In discussing the involvement of the USA you seem to conflate the IRA and Republicans with the Irish State. The British did not cut off of Ireland. Whilst in the early years of the Troubles they would not allow the Irish government to get involved in mediating or ending the conflict, since the early 70s the Irish and British governments met routinely to pave a way forward and end the violence. The Irish state was in no way acting alongside the IRA, it routinely was at odds against it. The European Union did not give london a "more integrated role" in Ireland. Whilst they remained irelands main trading partner, the joining of the EU actually brought about the begining of a movement away from the United Kingdom, with Ireland becoming less solely reliant on its neighbour for economic improvement. Sinn Féin did play a part in bringing about the Good Friday Agreement, but again you need to acknowledge the role of the Social Democratic Labour Party in the process. They were the most popular nationalist party at the time and dwarfed Sinn Féins political support. Not really an inaccuracy, but saying Sinn Féin have significant support is an understatement. They are the largest party in the Irish State and will likely be the major party in the next government. More significantly they are the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assemy (devolved parliament of Northern Ireland) and are the first nationalist/republican party to elect a First Minister and be the largest party in Northern Ireland.

Thank you very much for addressing our long and dark history in such a matter of fact and human fashion. One of the best videos on the topic i have ever seen.

Even though the terms "Britain" and "England" were originally muddled in nationalist and imperialist English/British propaganda, it's historically inaccurate to refer to Britain as "England" when discussing anything after 1707. Referring to the Acts of Union as the "English Act of Union" is confusing at best, misleading at worst. Are you referring to the 'Act of Union with Scotland' that was passed through the English parliament, or the 'Act of Union with England' that was passed through the Scottish parliament? Discussing the Orange Order or UVF without acknowledgement of their primarily Scottish and Ulster Scot founders is also a big miss, especially amongst the repeated mislabelling of Britain in this period as "England". Scottish protestants were (and still are) among the most firebrand unionists in both Britain and Ireland. If the subject was the Anglo-Norman invasion or Cromwell's atrocities in Ireland, then England would be an accurate label. However, everything Britain has done in Ireland since 1707 (or even further back in 1609, when James VI & I began the Plantation of Ulster) warrants a framing that acknowledges the role Scotland played in British imperialism, and the emergence of a British unionist identity that was central to Britain's colonial rule in Ireland through the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Britain's crimes in Ireland were perpetrated by leading offenders from both England and Scotland, and ignoring that does a disservice to any attempt to understand Irish history and anti-colonial nationalism.

35:35 “the republicans engaged exclusively in urban guerilla warfare”. That’s simply incorrect, most of the heaviest fighting in the war was in Armagh, which is not an urban county at all, the Brits called it Bandit Country and lost the majority of their soldiers there, these engagements were in fields and wooded areas as well as small towns, it got so bad that the Brits would only travel by helicopter to avoid being ambushed on the roads. The IRA would then attempt to shoot their helicopters down, successfully on several occasions. Before the peace agreements the IRA actually acquired SAMs. The most deadly engagement for the Brits in the conflict was in another rural area, not an urban centre, the Narrow Water ambush in County Down right on the border, where they were hit with IEDs and mortars, along with intense rifle and machine gun fire and had a helicopter damaged, they lost 18 killed and more than 20 wounded. I appreciate the effort you’ve gone into in this video but every few minutes I notice something you’ve gotten wrong or aren’t giving enough information on and it bugs me lol.

I've been enjoying this channel and listening to your stories while I work and hey guess what you just uploaded an hour long, highly polished and informed video on my country! Awesome stuff, greetings from the wet & windy South West Coast of Ireland 🇮🇪

Glad i got to watch through the original before the take down. I'll watch through, like, and comment on this one as well to get the algorithm going for it!

Despite some inaccuracies as pointed out by others i really appricate this video espically coming from a yank it is always great to see people of other backgrounds taking an jnterest in irish history

thank you for the insightful commentary! I have been trying to do research about this topic lately and have found it difficult to access reliable and detailed resources, so please know how much I appreciate your work here :)

Thank you for your work, I love your content and always look forward to the next installment.

Thank you for the amazing videos you make. I’ve been following you for a while and Ive really enjoyed seeing your channel grow and get the recognition it deserves. Happy to finally “meet” you and put a face on those deep thoughts! Keep up the good work💛

It's finally here! Thanks Michael... Good to meet your face! It contains a fantastic brain, I must say 👍 *Hooray 4* 🐎🐎🐎🐎

Amazing video as always, I certainly appreciate the variety of subjects most if not all of which I find incredibly amusing and informing. Keep up the great work 🙌🏻

Holy crap, I love your video style!! This is impactful dude.

This is can be a hard subject to broach growing up with the tail-end of the civilian bombing campaign from the IRA, however I often challenge myself to confront it and appreciate the take with due consideration to your moral position on the issue and sympathies. My personal opinion is simply this. Past transgressions and history aside, this cannot be changed, the future of Northern Ireland should be left in the hands of the Northern Irish people. For a unified Ireland or not. A couple of points, it's easily done though incorrect, the use of 'English' in place of 'British' to describe the British government. Also the Parachute Regiment are colloquially known as simply 'The Paras' particularly in this context. Cheers

One of the greatest youtubers. I really appreciate that you have posted your videos in audioform on spotify. Thank you

the videos you put out are incredible!! narration is great, information is succinct and easy to understand and the visuals are eyecatching! great work 🩷

I only found this channel about a month ago but it has to be one of the best I’ve found for some time, not many people cover this time in history or any Irish history entirely so it’s nice to see someone with your style and perspective cover this topic, being from the north of ireland myself I must say fair play

Good lord Michael that is so much extra work. Glad to get it back in any form though, keep on truckin.

So glad to see you managed to get this up on youtube, even if you probably had to omitt stuff in order to do so.

Great to see how well this channel is doing. If I remember correctly the first video I saw was from a time where it wasn't even called horses.

Love this! Informative and incredibly well made

As an Irish history graduate I can say this is a fantastic video. While I won't unpack it here or voice any issues with it. I will say if you are interested in this or any other topic please do not limit yourself to a single source or text and be aware of the context under that sources' production.

The erroneous interchanging of England/English and Britain/British creates an extremely poor historical narrative. These are different terms with different meanings and in the context of Irish history, its a very important distinction.

Thanks for all the work you do really appreciate it

This was an amazingly well put together video

Thank you for doing this horses. I have been looking for this exact thing on RU-vid for years.

oh dear lord finally you were able to upload this. thank you

I am blown away with your progress. Your videos are with no doubt the most interesting. Your voice is so calming. You’re really gifted at story telling I feel I actually love your brain. Thank you

incredible video. brilliant visuals and very informative. i feel like i completely understood everything you said despite the complex nature of the topic, thank you

Absolutely love your videos. I think you’re one of the best essayists on RU-vid. And thank you for covering this topic, being a prodigal descendant of Ireland meant a lot of pain (though removed) for my family during the Troubles. Having been fortunate enough to visit Ireland recently and to see the country healing was a joy.

Was this your first YT page? You seem to do this really well m8! Keep it up, best channel on the platform

Thanks for the video!

Great video. Sorry you had to upload a bunch of times, but I'm glad I got to see it.

I would have added in the Irish Citizen's Army in 1916, as James Connolly was the socialist leader that wrote most of the Irish Volunteer Constitution. This is important because most of the post WW2 movements would have socialist ideals ingrained into the concept of the volunteers, not just nationalism itself. And while the Irish Civil War is a topic that would deserve a video of its own, you cannot really just skip over Éamon de Valera's anti-treaty stance. And he is the the one that got Southern Ireland out of the commonwealth altogether, so that made the IRA within Ireland to be viewed as obsolete. I would also mention in the 1930s that there was a left wing and right wing split, with the Blue Shirts being largely nationalist, while the left wing would have supported socialist movements.

Heres a comment for comment reasons. Great work as always brother! Keep on keepin' on

Fantastic channel you've got here sir, very inspiring

Thanks for posting - very well put together film, nicley done

Honestly your vids are one of the few things that bring me joy these days thank you for the content Mr horse

love your content! as an irish man I really appreciate this video!

Nice to put a face to the voice mate excited for your work to continue. If you got in trouble then you are doing something right my friend

Great video. Looking forward to checking out more.

Dude only talked about funding from the US was as if the US government funded the IRA, the whole show case of the statue of Liberty and red whire and blue was just weird, also he completely ignored the fact Libya under Gaddafi also funded the IRA

My greatest gripe is how little mentions names of such influential leaders like Padraic Pierce, James Connolly, Micheal Collins just to name a few who carry modern influence to this day.

Most underrated channel on all of RU-vid. Been here since the start, thank the Algorithm. Here's to a million, my dude!

This was great dude! Cheers from Ireland ☘

Fantastic, fantastic video. It’s rare a non-Irish person gets this topic so right. You’ve managed it, and then some.

Another note is that the million immigrated isnt entirely accurate, Irish immigrants had to leave the country via "coffin ships" during the famine, as you can guess from their title survival wasnt guaranteed or even likely, although it is hard if not impossible to garner an accurate ratio of immigrants that survived vs died, it is safe to say the several hundreds of thousands of those "immigrated" were infact part of the death tally

Your videos are of such high quality!

im glad your channel is still called horses 🐎 enjoying this one a lot so far.

You’re my favourite creator on RU-vid, and as an Irishman, I’m glad your spreading our story

Fantastic video - I recently covered this topic too, but in far less depth. Hope this takes off

This is a great video thanks for posting, very well written

Great video - not often does someone tell the story so well

U have no idea how amazing and insightful your videos are... Thank you for spreading the truth.

I liked the documentary overall but I found your conclusions at the end a bit odd. We have every right to judge a movement if that movement is engaging in terrorist activities which led to the deaths of hundreds of innocent people. I doubt the families of the people who died in the bombings and shootings would agree that we shouldn’t judge the methods of their murderers just because it’s not our country. And it’s not through these terroristic methods, but through compromise and negotiation that the Good Friday Agreement and a lasting peace has even come about in Northern Ireland. A united Ireland will likely come about through the democratic process and not through armed conflict.

A lot of work has gone into putting this together. Nice one 👍

You are the first RU-vidr I have genuinely considered being a patron for

There's a lot of inaccuracies in this video. Pretty sloppy research must have been done

... and I'm not gonna condemn the IRA either...

Keep up the good work, love you man

Amazing work! I really enjoyed this one and it's so relevant right now

I can remember "Bobby Sands Slimmer of the Year 1981" t-shirts being worn in the Glasgow area.

That is a wobbly history of the orange order right there. Plus about 9:20 "the British demanded" the Irish nationalists fight for them. Except there was no conscription in Ireland. They didn't dare.

The quality of these videos is astounding

very great content...and extremely timely

I mostly listen to your videos when I go to the gym so I have something to think about instead of the 20 pound weight in my hand. I think your voice is so soothing. While your videos are not loud, technically, they give me something to think about, well, loudly, if that makes sense.

Peculiar as an Irish person to watch a long form documentary by a foreigner on a conflict in Ireland, thankfully things have changed alot in Ireland now and violence is rare.

Holy shit, I just realized you have nearly 800k. I subscribed a few months ago where you had "not even" 100k? Congrats on that man! Well deserved!

Glad to have someone telling the difficult stories. Thanks for this, hopped on patron to see full, but I’ll hit this too for the algorithm.

Thank you for this Michael .. as A proud Irish man, I am very grateful ✌️🇮🇪

Great video fotage, editing and narration. I have only one gripe, when you tell the sory of the Mountbatten assasination you refer to the 3 others killed in the blast as "people" and not his grandson and inlaws.

I love how all of horses videos make me eager to read up on new subjects with measured skepticism leveled at the perspectives from which these stories have been documented. I found school always seemed to lack the bite and complexity expected of political, and idealogical struggles. Thank god we can research such subjects with comparative ease since the proliferation of the interne.

My favorite page with another banger

I have a few criticisms of the video, although overall I think it's a good one, and I'm sorry RU-vid gave it such hell. I love the presentation. Apologies for the text wall! Nobody's gonna get persuaded of anything by my RU-vid comment, but I'd like to encourage people to do more research into the fascinating history. I get you mainly want to talk about the Revolutionary Period, and condensing any 400-year history for context is always difficult. But wouldn't it at least be worth mentioning that the history's not 400 but 800 years since the first Anglo-Norman invasion? You could only talk about events from the 1600s on without implying England wasn't trying to conquer Ireland for centuries beforehand. To your credit, you cite mismanagement by the British as a cause of the Great Hunger. It might be more clear-cut than this, even simplified for the sake of a brief mention. Black '47 was a deliberate act of man-made famine by the UK government of Robert Peel. The Wikipedia article alone's description of the genocide debate is a battleground, but judging by the actions of the government, there was a deliberate effort to cause and exacerbate such hideous mass death that the population still hasn't recovered. (For example, when the Ottoman Sultan attempted to send humanitarian aid, the British blockaded Ireland with the Royal Navy, and the Turkish fleet resorted to smuggling. The British exported grain during the famine, just as they did in Bengal a century later.) Skipping to the Easter Rising, it can't be overstated how much its defeat killed much of Ireland's left wing. James Connolly and most of the other leaders of the failed revolution included communists and anarchists. (To crush the Easter Rising, the British actually sailed a damn gunboat into Dublin Harbour and fired shells at the city, the Muirchu.) Also worth noting is that the assertion that the IVF were not interested in any side of the war isn't quite true. The Declaration of the Irish Republic makes reference to the German Empire as a "gallant ally abroad." In the 1969 Civil Rights Riots, the police didn't just use water cannons and batons. They used two armoured cars equipped with heavy machine guns to fire into houses, murdering 9-year-old Patrick Rooney, as witnessed by journalist Max Hastings. I think you attributed this to the British Army? Don't get me wrong, they killed kids as well, but Rooney was shot by the DUP police. They also got unionist paramilitary thugs to do their dirty work with sticks and dustbin lids. You mentioned the Provos didn't deal drugs - true, and also they engaged in brutal vigilantism against drug dealers.

Why do you keep using the terms ‘English/England’ and less so ‘British/Great Britain’?

Thank you for this, I learned a lot.

So glad you found a workaround to upload this video. Thank you for your diligence!

I wish that I was able to support you financially but as it is not possible for me, I want to let you know that your work is very important and appreciated. You have a unique voice and your reflections on the topics you choose, contribute to stimulate conversations that we need to have in order to further a better understanding of the world and the people in it. You sir are truly making a difference and I hope that you will be able to continue creating your art for years to come. ❤

thank you for bringing attention to this history horses, and tiocfaidh ár lá 🙂

So lovely to get such a nuanced and well researched video about this delicate part of Irish history. Thank you, I'm sure it took ages to make.

just saw a pira video a couple of days ago and now this from one of my favorite channels.

You skipped over a few important details but still a very interesting video

Traditional Republicanism (ideology of loyalty to the historical Irish Republic separate from later states), is already by proxy Socialist Republicanism, as per the 1916/1919 Irish Republic. In my eyes, the only people who label themselves Socialist Republicans, are people not fully educated on Republicanism, or are plain Socialists with little Republicanism. Great video anyway.

Jesus where did 700,000 come from you deserve every sub. congrats

Thank you for this video

The way you conflate "English" & "British" throughout this video erases the role of Scots in the colonisation of Ulster, which seems like a huge omission since the majority of protestant settlers in Northern Ireland originated in Scotland. Not to mention all the sectarian orange marches that continue to plague cities and towns in Scotland in the modern day. It lets scots colonists off the hook by laying the blame exclusively with England

"The BBC owns the rights to most of the videos of the Irish Republican Army" made me so intensely angry.

Not only a new horses video but it's about Irish history? YEOOO